Southern Miss
18-11
Southeastern Louisiana
19-10
Ninth-Inning Homer Leads SLU over Southern Miss 7-6 Tuesday Night
4/2/2024 9:32:00 PM | Baseball
The loss snapped a seven-game road winning streak over the Lions as they fell to 18-11. SLU improved to 19-10.
With the score tied at 6-6, Thomas opened the bottom of the ninth by lacing a 1-2 Colby Allen pitch to the opposite field over the right field wall to win the game. The Golden Eagles appealed that Thomas missed first base, but after a regular appeal and a video review, the call was upheld to end the game.
The Golden Eagles were down by a run heading into the ninth when they got a leadoff single from Dalton McIntyre in the ninth. After a wild pitch, Ozzie Pratt followed with a single to left that was also misplayed by the Lion left fielder to allow McIntyre to score. Southern Miss, though, could not manage any additional offense in the final frame.
Slade Wilks gave the Golden Eagles the early advantage with a two-out, solo home run for his sixth of the year to rightfield in the first. The Golden Eagles increased their lead to 4-0 with three more runs in the second, getting a run on an RBI groundout by Nick Monistere, before getting a run-scoring single from Lawson Odom and an RBI double from McIntyre.
The Lions, though, plated their first run with a leadoff homer by Jake Killingsworth, his second of the year, to open the second inning.
SLU then scored five more times in the fourth to take a 6-4 advantage with its first run coming on a Christian Garcia single, before getting two tallies on bases-loaded walks and two more on a Killingsworth single.
The Golden Eagles closed the gap to 6-5 with a solo home run from Billy Butler, his fifth, in the fifth frame.
Jackson Rodriguez, the final of six Lion pitchers, earned the victory and improved to 3-1 after allowing a run on two hits and a walk with two strikeouts over the final inning. Allen gave up a run on two hits with three strikeouts in suffering the loss and falling to 3-2.
Seven Golden Eagle pitchers combined to fan 14 Lions in the game.
Southern Miss returns to action this weekend when they travel to Mobile to face South Alabama in a Sun Belt Conference series. The set opens Friday at 6:30 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Rodriguez, Jackson (3-1)
L: Allen, Colby (3-2)
Batting:
2B: McIntyre, Dalton 1
HR: Wilks, Slade 1 ; Butler, Billy 1
RBI: McIntyre, Dalton 1 ; Wilks, Slade 1 ; Butler, Billy 1 ; Monistere, Nick 1 ; Odom, Lawson 1
Base Running:
RUNS: McIntyre, Dalton 1 ; Wilks, Slade 1 ; Butler, Billy 1 ; Paetow, Carson 1 ; Gillespie, Davis 1 ; Broadus, Gabe 1
CS: Odom, Lawson 2
HBP: Butler, Billy 1 ; Paetow, Carson 1 ; Monistere, Nick 1
Batting:
HR: Thomas, Shea 1 ; Killingsworth, Jake 1
RBI: Thomas, Shea 2 ; O'Neal, Conner 1 ; Killingsworth, Jake 3 ; Garcia, Christian 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Williams, Justin 1 ; Salvaggio, TJ 1 ; Thomas, Shea 2 ; Killingsworth, Jake 1 ; Brome, Ryan 1 ; Garcia, Christian 1
SB: Brome, Ryan 1
HBP: Salvaggio, TJ 1 ; Brome, Ryan 1
